Status of heavy ion fusion

Abstract

An overview of ongoing activities on heavy ion fusion (HIF) in Russia, Europe, the USA and Japan is presented. In this phase, the activities are oriented towards theoretical and experimental investigations of the state of matter under extreme conditions, experimental and theoretical study on heavy ion beam-plasma interaction, powerful driver issues and development of computer codes for comprehensive numerical simulations of heavy ion driven inertial fusion. In the context of the new-generation facilities at GSI-Darmstadt and ITEP-Moscow, considerations are focused on large synchrotron rings and high current accumulator rings which would be important tools for investigations in the physics of dense plasmas and inertial fusion. Numerous national and international collaborations on HIF research are proceeding effectively towards development of a new energy source that is abundant, safe, environmentally acceptable and economical.

High energy density physics research at IMP, Lanzhou, China

“…Email: zhaoyt@impcas.ac.cn by methods of high energy proton/ion radiography and in fast ignition of a compressed fuel. Associated investigations have been pursued with increasing intensity by major accelerator laboratories and institutions in Europe, the USA, Russia, and Japan, where significant progress has been made during the last few decades [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] .…”

Trends in heavy ion interaction with plasma

“…The motivations are mainly listed as follows: (1) the energy deposition process of heavy ions in ionized matter is one of the most important processes of heavy-ion-driven high energy density and ICF; (2) Plasma devices could be served as an important accelerator equipment to focus ion beams (socalled plasma lens), and or to strip ion beams (so-called plasma stripper). Beside these applications, such research is also an important fundamental topic to understand the atomic processes in plasma, such as the di-electron recombination process, the radiative electron capture process, and the effective charge in Coulomb interaction process, and so on (Sigmund, 1969;Hoffmann et al, 1990;Dietrich et al, 1992;Jacoby et al, 1995;Golubev et al, 2001;Sharkov, 2001;Bock et al, 2005;Logan et al, 2005;Tahir et al, 2005;Piriz et al, 2006;Zhao et al, 2009;Teske et al, 2010;Tahir et al, 2010;Pikuz et al, 2010;Xin et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2011).…”

X-ray emission of Xe30+ ion beam impacting on Au target

“…The interaction laser beams or of multi-charged heavy ions with solid targets has drawn considerable interest, not only from fundamental physics, but also from many applications such as material modification, X-ray source devices, ion-wall interaction in magnet confinement fusion, heavy ion driven plasma, fusion energy research, and other areas as well Hoffmann et al, 2005Hoffmann et al, , 2007Tahir et al, 2005;Piriz et al, 2006;Logan et al, 2005;Sharkov, 2001;Golubev, 2001;Sigmund, 1969;Pikuz et al, 2010;Xin et al, 2010;Zavestovskaya, 2010). Accelerator physics and technology has made remarkable progress during recent years.…”